by Sony has officially killed Concord and closes the studio behind the game. ConcordThe servers of were shut down just two weeks after the launch of Firewalk Studios’ competitive team-based shooter after poor sales. Firewalk game director Ryan Ellis chose to take a more supportive role after Concordand Sony had said it would review its options for the project. The decision is made.
“After careful consideration, we have determined that the best path forward is to permanently end the game and close the studio,” Hermen Hulst of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Studio Business Group said in a statement today. “I would like to thank everyone at Firewalk for their expertise, creative spirit and dedication.” A representative said Bloomberg News that Firewalk Studios had 172 employees who will lose their jobs.
The online gaming industry is brutal and Concord may have suffered from its long development period, which meant that other team-based shooters had already risen to prominence and set player expectations. Many similar games are free to play and support themselves financially with a battle pass or seasonal model. Players may have balked at the $40 price tag for a new property, or maybe the genre was just too crowded to Concord to build muscle.
Whatever the reasons, today’s news marks a difficult new chapter for the world of game development. Firewalk Studios is an exception when it comes to commercial failure of this type, but it’s yet another closure in an industry that has seen a lot of turmoil in recent years. Layoffs and shutdowns have made headlines in the video game industry, but several of the recent cases have been like Firewalk, which was acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment last spring. Netflix abruptly shut down its AAA studio last week before the team had even announced a project. Microsoft closed three studios in the Zenimax family earlier this year. As fewer parties control a growing share of the video game industry, tolerance for experimentation and low profit margins will likely decrease as well. And this type of sudden upheaval could become even more common.
Updated, October 29, 2024, 2:52 p.m. ET: Updated story with additional context on Concordthe number of Firewalk Studios employees and broader trends in studio closures.
